Main Fuel Relay

[psquared76]

Hi All

I've got a 99 EX V6 Accord.

Lately it's been hard to start during the hot weather. The starter is fine, but the engine won't fire up.

The advice I've been given is to replace the main fuel relay...it's located under the driver side dash panel.

Has anyone done this? Where did you purchase the relay at? How hard is it to remove the lower dash panel (I've got a haynes manual and it gives some directions)? Is there anything I should be careful with?

Any help you guys could give would be great.

[vtownx]

this is my advice, i just replaced the main fuel relay on my 90 honda accord. I went to the auto parts store, adn they didnt have it, so my choice was either to go to the honda dealership and pay and arm and a leg for the part, or go to the junkyard and pick one off a car, so my advice is to go to the junkyard and see if you cant find one, they will surely give you one for dirt cheap compared to a dealership, plus if the main relay isnt the problem, you'll know that you didnt spend a lot of money replacing it when that wasnt the problem.

Second, when it comes to actually replacing it, theres a lot of stuff under the dash and the key is to remember how everything goes, and make sure you didnt unplug anything on accident when you pull out your relay.

good luck

[mpumas]

The part is called the Main Relay and powers the ECU and fuel pump. It is a dealer item and costs about $80.. It is on the side wall under the driver side dash. If you look up under the dash there is a large module which obsures the main relay. You need to remove it to get to the main relay. When we had problems with it, it was caused by cold/broken solder joints on the relay connections to the pc board and was repairable with a soldering iron.

[ProMan]

First of all, if it's the main relay, the simptom is more likely to be intermittent. Especially when it's hot, the car won't start and if you open the window let it cool down for couple minutes it starts with no problem.

If it's your case, my suggesting is to re-solder it once you get it off. It's easy to open. And if you have a soldering iron, just re-solder every leg on that small pcb. I did that about 2 years ago on my 92 Accord, the car never had that problem again.

See the following link.
http://www.markl.f9.co.uk/howto/elec...main-relay.htm

[bjd088]

That's a nice link, thanks for posting it

[psquared76]

Thanks for the replies! Your advice and the link were definitely helpful.

Looks like a good project for the weekend.